Southwest airlines pilot comments1/17/2024 Now, allow me to explain the significance of flight delays on pilots: when a major airport, like Denver, begins to slow its operation down due to weather, flights that are dispatched (scheduled to fly) into that airport are often ground-stopped (delayed) at their point of origin.Īirplanes that are already en-route are either placed into airborne holding patterns, which starts depleting important fuel reserves, or sent to one of the pre-planned alternate airports. I must consider managing adequate fuel reserves, possible alternate landing sites, take off and landing performance capabilities, air traffic control complexities, and effectiveness of de-icing fluids all while minding customer needs as well as my own (highly regulated) flight crew duty limits.Īs a Southwest Airlines pilot, I have the additional complication of balancing such considerations over 120 unique airports: I don't worry about snowstorms when taking off in Miami, but when my flight is dispatched up to Chicago under blustery conditions, all of the aforementioned factors must be considered. There are certain procedures involved in operating an aircraft under such conditions. After all, winter weather comes every year. Now, preparing for and reacting to a winter storm is a normal seasonal occurrence for me. In the days leading up to Christmas weekend, a snowstorm with frigidly cold air was approaching the West and Midwest, with cities like Denver bracing for huge temperature drops. In this exclusive essay, a Southwest Airlines pilot of almost two decades shares their perspective on the recent chaos and disruption experienced by the airline. In November 2022, the president of our union Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA) declared that Southwest Airlines was "one thunderstorm, one ATC event, one router blowout away from a complete meltdown." The outdated pilot scheduling system was an obvious flaw to pilots, and SWAPA has brought concerns about the lack of scheduling automation to the company's attention for years. What I witnessed, while both in the airport terminals and on the aircraft themselves, was utter chaos: exhaustion, sadness, anger, exasperation, and eventual resignation. I was scheduled to fly in the days leading up to Christmas Day and again the following week. While those two events carry their own significance to many of us, they could be largely considered totally unforeseen, whereas cold temperatures and snowy airport conditions are a little more. My experiences as a pilot include the massive shock and uncertainty after the tragic events of Septemand, recently, the effects of COVID lockdowns and mandates. The account that follows is written through my lens: a professional pilot with 25 years of flying experience, 17 at Southwest Airlines. As often happens during wintertime in North America (more on that later too) something else was brewing: a snowstorm that came to be known as Elliot. Tickets were booked for holiday gatherings, weddings, celebrations of life, college breaks, reunions, vacations, and many other personal reasons. As anticipation was brewing for the arrival of Christmas this past December, millions of people packed their suitcases (more on that later) and were eagerly awaiting their travel plans on Southwest Airlines.
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